Tag Archive: Rogue One movie review

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story finally answers the question of what kind of movie you would get if Hollywood would only, finally, let a diehard fan direct a major franchise film. For all the great cast of actors and heroic characters in this unique tie-in film that falls outside the episodic trilogies, the real hero turns out to be director Gareth Edwards. Edwards does so many things right with Rogue One you’ll lose count, and the best of this is surprise after surprise of what is at the next turn. And if you watched all the trailers that seemed to reveal all too much, surprise again, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This is, without exception, the most fun movie in the franchise since The Empire Strikes Back, despite its equally dark tone, and it has all the action of the original Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans immediately jumped at the chance of finding its place in the list of the best and worst of the prior six films. Is Rogue One better than The Force Awakens? In many ways, yes. In other ways, such as the use of too many jumps between geographic road marker titles along the way and tightness of story plotting, Rogue One is probably a bit behind. What fans really want to do is compare Rogue One to the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. So how does it compare? It really is too soon to tell. The hype and excitement of any new blockbuster in a franchise you love makes you want to heap on the high praise. Is The Force Awakens as good as we thought a year ago? Fans will never agree. But the fact Rogue One is worthy of the comparison to Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back should be praise enough.

The best thing about Rogue One is CGI and motion capture technology improvements. The best kept film secret in several years should be kept for all to experience, and later we can all chat about it once everyone has had a chance to see the film. Prepare to be impressed. Technology is finally catching up with Connie Willis’s future Hollywood novel Remake. Rogue One also has great writing–an issue that haunted the prequels. The dialogue is smarter than probably all the past episodes. The space battles aren’t superfluous like in Return of the Jedi and all of the prequels. Every step in the film is in furtherance of the goal–find the plans to destroy the Death Star. This is not a mere MacGuffin, this mission has gravity for everyone. Delivered like an epic World War II era film, Rogue One is the best war movie of the franchise.